Xander Bogaerts Praises Red Sox’s Roman Anthony As ‘Real Deal’

San Diego Padres shortstop Xander Bogaerts welcomed his former team (the Boston Red Sox) to town over the weekend.

Bogaerts’ reunion with former teammates was a success, as the Padres took two of three from the Red Sox and the four-time All-Star hit his first home run against his former club on Saturday.

The 32-year-old talked with reporters over the weekend about various topics, including Boston’s most recently extended core player, outfielder Roman Anthony.

“You hear a lot about him, like ‘He’s so mature’ and stuff like that. That’s a lot of credit to him, for sure,” Bogaerts said of Anthony, according to the Boston Herald’s Gabrielle Starr. “Roman’s really good, man. He’s really good. He’s the real deal.”

Anthony was just 21 years and 27 days old when he made his MLB debut with Boston on June 9. Per Starr’s report, Bogaerts is one of only three players to make their Red Sox debuts at a younger age in the last 30 seasons.

The Red Sox rookie had glowing remarks about the two-time World Series champion as well.

“(Bogaerts is) a guy I’ve watched have an amazing career, and continues to just kill it,” Anthony said. “He was a big impact in (Boston) for a very good chunk of time, so it will be exciting to hopefully go and (talk) with him and kind of relate to him in a sense… It’s been fun in the first two months (of my career) to just look at guys like him, guys that I grew up watching and be able to kind of connect with them on the field and talk with them and relate.”

Bogaerts called this year’s Red Sox team “young” and “hungry,” according to Starr’s report. The five-time Silver Slugger Award winner gave Anthony massive credit to Boston’s hot play over the summer.

“But then you bring up someone like Roman,” Bogaerts said. “He’s game-changing.”